Youth

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 

           -1 Timothy 4:12

In 1st and 2nd Timothy Paul is giving instructions and encouragement for the ministry to his protege. Timothy is much younger than Paul; he is described as Paul's "true child in the faith". Because of his youthfulness it is understandable that he would have some hangups about getting into ministry. I mean, he hasn't been alive as long as many of those he will be teaching and, in some cases, pointing out faults in and reprimanding/disciplining. Surely the age difference will make them write him off as some uppity kid who deserves at most cursory politeness. By worldly standards he should sit down, shut up, and not interrupt while the grownups do the talking. What he had to realize is that age doesn't matter; what matters is being obedient to  God's calling in his life. In this verse Paul is reminding Timothy that his age doesn't matter. As long as his speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity are examples to other believers, as long as his life and everything he does lines up with God's Word his ministry will have the profound effect it should.

Age causing people reluctance and anxiety at speaking is not a new thing by the time Timothy is feeling it, nor did it stop with Timothy. All the way back in the book of Job Elihu is reluctant to speak because of his youth. In Job 32:4 the Bible says "Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he." He is the youngest there, and because of that was "timid and afraid to declare his opinion" (Job 32:6). However, because   of his convictions about God he did speak out. He spoke out for six chapters (ch. 32 - ch. 37). He reprimands the three friends for failing to answer Job. He rebukes Job claiming righteousness and purity before God, for claiming God has been unjust in His dealings with Job. He speaks of God's perfect justice and then expounds upon the greatness and majesty of God. He who is the youngest calls out those who are older. He decided to put aside his timidity and fear to speak up, and God used his words. Nowhere in those six chapters does anyone else present speak. They can find no answer or rebuke for Elihu's words.

God does great things through young people. This is evident throughout both the Old and New Testaments, as well as from other sources. In DC Talk's second Jesus Freaks book there is the story of a young North Korean named Kim. Kim saw one of his friends killed in the street for being a Christian. He came home to his mother, who had hidden her faith from her sons to protect them, in tears because he didn't understand; he didn't even know what a Christian was. She told him, and he came to faith in Christ. He led his three younger brothers to Christ that same night, and soon after crossed the river to China to procure a Bible for the family. He found one miniature Bible, but could find no more. Before he returned to North Korea though, he told the group of Chinese Christians from whom he received the Bible that he needed 5000 more and would return in a month to pick them up. The Bibles were ready when Kim came back, and he and his brothers smuggled Bibles into North Korea for at least a year. This is what can happen when young people put aside fear of not being taken seriously and have faith that God will prepare the way and provide the words to say.


Here's a link to some good videos about youth acting on faith, by youth acting on faith. I just found the site; so far it seems pretty good.
http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2010/04/video-series-fabulous-life-of-a-teenager/

Real, lasting JOY.

I believe there is a difference between joy and happiness. A huge difference, as in they aren't even close to being the same thing. Similar, maybe. But still crazy far apart. This actually came up in a 3 hour conversation Alex and I had with another friend about a week ago that ended at 1:30 AM when I finally decided I needed to be able to wake up later that morning. What it came down to was Alex and I defined joy as a gift from God, something akin to a sense of prevailing peace and...well, not quite contentment, but contentment, that was dependent of nothing but our relationship with the Father. Happiness, on the other hand, is an emotional state in which we feel good overall, based on circumstances and events that we experience. In other words, happiness is fleeting and completely dependent on us while joy is completely opposite: neither fleeting nor in any way dependent on us. It is a gift from God, given when we follow Him. It is what allows two Christian parents of a three year old boy who has died from cancer have peace, to be able to praise God and trust in His plan instead of wallowing in grief and self-pity. It's what gives them the strength to carry on, to see the opportunity to help others and further the Kingdom which is present in the loss of their dear son. You know when people talk about being able to tell something is different about a Christian and how they want to know what that something is and experience it themselves? Yeah, that's joy too. And without God, that just doesn't exist. 

Job 20:4-5 says this:

4 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, 5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

The exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment. That is happiness, not true joy. It cannot be true joy, for two reasons. First, it is "short" and "just for a moment"; true joy is permanent, it lasts "all our days" (Psalm 90:14). Second, those in view here are described as wicked and godless; in Psalm 90:14 it is said that joy comes from God. In Galatians 5:22 joy is listed as part of the fruit of the spirit, the attributes expressed when the Holy Spirit indwells a Christian. 

Happiness is fleeting; it is a human emotion based on circumstance and situation. Joy is something else entirely. Joy is not fleeting. Joy is not based on any situation or circumstance we may find ourselves in. It comes from loving God, from putting Him and His will before our own happiness. With this in mind, I'd like to say that I (and I'm sure I'm far from alone) am all-too-often guilty of doing things to make me happy in the moment when I should be focusing on God, on His glory and kingdom. Pursuing something constant, uplifting, and unconditional. Something awesome, perfect, and amazingly beautiful. In a word: JOY. This should be our focus. Not happiness, because then we would never be able to make the sacrifices and tough decisions we are sometimes called to make or to step outside our comfort zones, but joy. Real, lasting JOY.

A Good Night

Just watched a few episodes of American Guns, read three and a half chapters of Job, and now I'm typing up a blog post with Rush of Fools playing on Pandora. It's a good night. And Fame was the first song it played. That's one of my favorite songs of theirs, especially from their first album (Can't Get Away is awesome too). I had an interview for a summer job today; I think it went pretty well. We'll see. It was prayed over before, and it's continued to be prayed over since. No matter what happens, I know God will provide. I have faith that He will, and that is quite a good lead-in to what I was planning on posting about. I didn't intend it to be. Cool, huh?

Job 11: 7-9 says

7 j“Can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

8 It is khigher than heaven3—what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

9 Its measure is longer than the earth

and broader than the sea.

That's Zophar speaking - one of Job's friends who sits with him in the ash for a week straight. As a side-note, that's friendship right there. Anyway, here he is trying to convey to Job the impossibility of understanding why God does something. And it is impossible - unless they are divinely revealed - to know God's thoughts. Job replies to this in chapter 12, letting Zophar and the other two know that he knows that. He gets it. In fact, he builds upon it. Zophar showed the wisdom and omniscience of God; Job shows His strength, His omnipotence, along with his wisdom and knowledge.
Job 12: 13-25 show this clearly:

13 l“With God3 are wisdom and might;

he has counsel and understanding.

14 If he tears down, none can rebuild;

if he mshuts a man in, none can open.

15 If he nwithholds the waters, they dry up;

if he osends them out, they overwhelm the land.

16 With him are strength and psound wisdom;

the deceived and the deceiver are his.

17 He leads qcounselors away stripped,

and rjudges he makes fools.

18 He slooses the bonds of kings

and binds a waistcloth on their hips.

19 He leads priests away stripped

and overthrows the mighty.

20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted

tand takes away the discernment of the elders.

21 He upours contempt on princes

and loosens the belt of the strong.

22 He vuncovers the deeps out of darkness

and brings wdeep darkness to light.

23 He xmakes nations great, and he destroys them;

he enlarges nations, and yleads them away.

24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth

and zmakes them wander in a trackless waste.

25 They agrope in the dark without light,

and he makes them bstagger like a drunken man.

Job says this to show that he knows God is responsible for the calamity which has befallen him, even though he does not know the reason(s) for it. Despite the circumstances surrounding it, this declaration is still a beautiful statement of God's perfect, unassailable power and wisdom. This power is demonstrated countless times throughout the Bible: in creation (Genesis 1), in raising men from the dead (John 11), in healing the blind (Mark 8), and through the salvation offered through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Bible we are called to have faith (Mark 11: 22). In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5: 7, we are called to walk by faith, not by sight. Walk here can also be translated as live, as in to walk continuously or for your whole life. We are called to select each step not based on what we can see, on what we know, but on faith in God and his perfect purpose. God even defines faith for us. He says, through the author of Hebrews, that
 faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of ethings not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by fthe word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of gthings that are visible. 
Faith is a gift from God that allows us to have peace, to know that he is the creator of all things (verse 3) and therefore above all things and able to provide. But as awesome as that is, that's not the awesome thing here.

The awesome thing is that the faith we are called to have, to live our lives by, is not a blind faith. It's not like some guy in a mental institution is telling us to have faith in him, that he will provide for us. It is a God who is proven many times over to be all powerful and all knowing, just as Job and Zophar tell of in the Old Testament. A God who can and will provide each and every need of each and every person, just as it is said in Philippians 4: 19:
19 And my God mwill supply every need of yours naccording to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

God is perfect in knowledge and power; he knows all our needs and is able to provide them. Even better, he promises that he will provide them according to his perfect plan.

We just have to have faith.

I Don't Have It

God, give me the strength. Give me the words to say, if you want me to say anything at all. Something. Something to speak to a heart as only you can. To bring about radical change, a complete paradigm shift as only you can. Allow Alex and myself to be excellent witnesses for you. And I pray not only for a paradigm shift for those we witness to, either together, separately, or in some other group. Change our own minds, our own spirits as well. Reveal yourself more completely to us through these experiences and interactions. Draw us closer to you, and as that happens use us to draw others to you. Allow us and help us to demonstrate your love, to live out your will and allow your grace to be shown through us. You are perfect and awesome and just and indescribably loving and merciful. Help us share the incredible relationship we have been given with the Creator of the universe with those who so desperately need it, whether they understand that need or not. Conform our lives to you in such a way and to such a degree that it will be blatantly obvious to everyone we meet that something is different; introduce in them a desire for it, or even just a curiosity about it, and use our interactions with those people to point them to you. Even if we see no fruit from our labors, let us plant the seeds. Even if we see no fruit from our labors, help us persevere, not growing weary despite time passing. Help us persevere and press on like Caleb, who waited 45 years on a promise. Help us be like Jeremiah, who was mocked and beaten by his own people, his own family, and still obeyed, still persevered, through over 60 years serving you. As Dr. Henry preached this morning: help us be the kind of people who move mountains. Amen.

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Revival

My roommate (who is awesome, by the way) got me a book for my birthday entitled In God We Still Trust. It's a 365 day devotional, and each day has a patriotic theme to it; appropriate, with me being in the Navy and all that jazz. It's pretty neat, and I try to start each day with a nice cup of coffee, this book, and the Bible. I missed a few days there for a while (by a few days I mean most of the month of April), but on the last day of April I made the decision to begin my day in that way once again. The heading for April 30's devotion was "Revival in America", and it was about Jonathan Edwards and the great revival he led in New England in the 1730s. Now, the last thing on each day's page in the devotional is always a Bible verse, sometimes with a little snippet written along with it. For this particular day the verse was 2 Chronicles 30:9. Here is what it says: "For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn His face from you, if you return to Him." The devotional was about the revival of a nation. But revival of a nation is dependent on the revival of individuals. Without revival in the hearts of individual people, nothing will ever happen on a national or global scale. This one little page in this one little book brought to completion something I had already started to realize. Real revival was needed. It was needed right here in my soul. I had spent most of the last few years running from God, trying to do things my own way when I knew I shouldn't, only trusting Him when I was in a pickle that I couldn't get myself out of. Looking back I could see times where I had started really pursuing Christ, but those times were always followed by me trying to live life on my own terms. I'm here to tell you that doesn't work out. Ever. So I stepped out of the kiddie pool, took off my dinosaur floaties, got a running start and dove into the deep end. I made the decision to live my life for Christ all the time, not just when I felt like it. It's not the easiest thing. In fact at times it can be pretty stinkin' tough. It takes a lot of discipline and a good bit of time management, making sure I don't get caught up in other things and miss out on spending time in the Word, in prayer, and just taking in the beauty of God's creation and marveling at the awesomeness of His love and grace. But boy is it fun, and boy is it rewarding. And oh boy is it freeing.

First post...again?

So here goes; I'm redoing/restarting/revamping/some other thing that starts with re- the blog again. This time it's different, though. This time it's a complete overhaul. I've had some distractions over the past few months, and more than once my eyes have been on something other than the prize. I know it happens, humans aren't perfect. I get it, honest I do. But I've played the prodigal too many times for too long. I originally intended for this blog to be a way to keep myself accountable by posting the results of my studies online, but I let that intention fall by the wayside. Not quite how I planned it. Anyway, I'm gonna start it back up, and I'm gonna do it the way I originally intended. Same name, same game, one difference. I'm actually going to play the game this time. I'm committing, right now, to two posts a week. At the LEAST, two posts a week. I'm gonna take the focus off of myself (at least, as much as I can in a blog that I write) and put it where it should be: on God and his Word.

Here goes.